


Uncovered

by JediDryad



Series: Unresolved - a Counterpressure Sequel Series [2]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends - All Media Types
Genre: Angst and Fluff and Smut, Dinner Parties, F/M, Leia ships it, Unresolved Sexual Tension, no one is the voice of reason, subtext takes over, we need to talk but we won't
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-26
Updated: 2019-08-28
Packaged: 2020-09-26 21:15:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,495
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20396266
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JediDryad/pseuds/JediDryad
Summary: He should have kept his mouth shut. Really, he should have kept his mouth completely to himself.Another dysfunctional evening with Luke and Mara. The tension has not eased since Counterpressure or Undeserved.This is set weeks after Black Fleet Crisis. Expect no faithful adherence to the events of that trilogy, I tried very hard to do a re-read but I just could not. Broad strokes apply.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [frangipani](https://archiveofourown.org/users/frangipani/gifts).

Mara stood outside the door to the Solo suite, requisite bottle of exotic intoxicant in hand. Ringing the doorbell felt a little silly. No one made it to this door without security clearance and careful screening. And that wasn’t even taking into account the Force sensitives on the other side of the door, the ever present Noghri, and a particularly loyal Wookie.

Everyone knew she was coming. Everyone knew she was there. But, as Karrde would remind her, sometimes everyone likes to maintain some semblance of normalcy.

She rang the doorbell.

After a moment, the door slid open and Han greeted her with his signature grin. From behind him came the dull roar of a room full of beings speaking all at once. A classical Alderaanian musical thread wove its way under the din.

“Hey, Jade! Glad you could make it. Need someone to cut through all the red tape in here.”

Mara suppressed the urge to thrust the bottle into his arms and march right back to the turbolift. Leia had invited her to dinner, not whatever this party was. She’d stepped up her outfit a bit from her usual jumpsuit and jacket but she had a sudden panic about whether it was enough.

Luckily another quick look at her host allowed her to recognize that Solo was freshly pressed but casual, so perhaps it wasn’t as formal as it sounded from out here.

Still, she could feel irritation building at the back of her mind. This felt like a trap.

Refocusing, she picked up on Han’s last words and smiled conspiratorily, “I’ll see what I can do.”

That earned a crooked grin of approval.

He seemed to be holding onto the door frame a little tighter than normal as he ushered her in and she noticed an almost imperceptible limp as he led her out of the foyer.

She tried to relax. The Solo place was not enemy territory.

“It’s good to see you up and around,” she said as it occurred to her that he had not been well enough to be on door duty last time she was here.

That wasn’t just small talk either. It was good to see Solo continuing to recover from his Yevethan ordeal. Leia’s distress through the whole conflict had been hard to watch, even for her. And when she had sent her a few holos of his early recovery, Mara had had her doubts about whether he’d ever be his old self again. She hadn’t known what to say. Comforting the afflicted wasn’t exactly a part of her training.

She’d found herself offering to look after the kids so Leia could spend more time at the medcenter.

The moment the message had gone, she kicked herself for it. As if Leia Organa Solo would want to leave her children in the care of prickly, aloof Mara Jade.

To her surprise, Leia had taken her up on the offer on a number of occasions while she was on Coruscant.

To her greater surprise, Mara found she liked the Solo kids. They were smart and brutally honest. Everything they asked or said mattered deeply to them. Sometimes, they would open a conversation with a complete non sequitur and Mara would have to get them to backtrack so she could figure out what they were talking about. She smiled thinking of it.

She’d been here a lot lately.

“Yeah, I’m getting there,” Han answered, pulling her back to the present. “Bacta’s great but even it takes time. Luke’s been helping. Sometimes that jedi mumbo jumbo comes in handy.”

“Sometimes,” Mara agreed, not sure if she had succeeded in sounding neutral. There was nothing neutral about her immediate reaction to the words Jedi and Luke Skywalker.

She could feel herself tensing up again, shoulders creeping back up around her ears.

Luckily, at that moment, Leia came around the corner from the dining area. 

“Mara! It’s great to see you,” she said with an embrace that felt genuine if utterly High Alderaanian.

Leia chided Han for not taking the bottle from Mara. Delight sparkled in her eyes as he mock protested that it was not his fault.

In short order, Mara’s blaster was stowed away in the weapons cabinet, secured by a simple Force lock the children did not yet have the control to master. She kept her lightsaber. They already knew better than to touch one.

They stepped around the corner and Mara found herself faced with a room full of New Republic personalities, most of whom, she was certain, did not expect her to be here.

“Just the nice ones,” Leia insisted in her ear and Mara realized she was not hiding her reaction as well as she wanted to.

Memories of courtly events flashed through her mind and a glass of wine was thrust into her hands.

Fierfek! 

This was not the sort of evening she had planned. She had been prepared to play bantha stacks with Jacen while Jaina talked in her other ear, not exchange painful pleasantries with some stiff backed republic commander who didn’t quite trust her.

With a deep breath, she attempted to pull together some combination of Master Trader and courtier to present to the room.

“Mara!”

Her breath left her in a whoosh.

It was Lando.

“Didn’t know you were going to be here,” he said with his standard charming flourish.

“Neither did I,” she murmured as he clinked glasses with hers. She took the cue to drink, and let the woody warmth seep into her a bit.

“So,” he asked quietly, “are we officially broken up, or do we need to stage some sort of lovers’ spat to clarify things?”

Mara took a surreptitious look around as she sipped her wine. No one seemed to have any interest in them. That was good.

“No,” she decided after a moment, “I don’t want to do that at Leia’s party. I think the performance on Malastare took care of things. 

She eyed him over her glass.

Please tell me you showed that young Twil’lek a good time at least.”

“Oh, the best,” he assured her.

She raised an eyebrow in doubt.

“I sent the bill to Karrde.”

“He must have been thrilled.”

“Necessary mission expense.”

Mara smothered a grin. Lando’s idea of a necessary expense differed greatly from Karrde’s.

“Okay, We should probably be awkward but civil.”

“Can I be charming?”

“Could I stop you?”

“Point taken.” He looked down at his glass, “I need a refill.”

He disappeared in the direction of the drinks table and Mara again found herself looking for a friendly face. Leia caught her gaze from across the room where she and Han were talking with Wedge Antilles and Iella Wessiri but Mara smiled and looked away. She could manage on her own.

“Mara Jade, I believe” came a deep voice from her left, and Mara found herself looking up at Garm Bel Iblis. Once again she summoned that courtly merchant facade she was trying on.

“That’s correct, General.” she said politely, offering a traditional gesture of respect. He waved it away.

“Must be strange to be in this room. I assume at some point you were ordered to murder any number of us.”

Mara wasn’t sure whether to be relieved or offended by the way he cut right to the heart of things. It made her facade useless, but revived her spirit a little.

“Actually, sorry to disappoint, but most of my orders were to take out internal threats to Palpatine: ambitious Moffs, Crimelords who were getting ahead of themselves, that sort of thing. I was never sent to assassinate anyone in this room.” 

“And if you had been, they wouldn’t be in this room right now.”

“Not in the flesh,” she agreed.

The glaring exception, of course, did not seem to be here tonight. She supposed she should be grateful for small favours. 

“Ah I see.”

Mara couldn’t quite get a read on his reaction.

“I mean, I was supposed to shoot you on sight, if you ever turned up again but there were never any formal strategies.”

Bel Iblis’ laugh was warm and generous.

“I see why you are welcome in this house, Trader Jade.”

Mara felt her astonishment drift across her face. Total acceptance was not what she expected.

“We were all Imperials at some point,” he reminded her.

She nodded, still nonplussed.

She then heard a chorus of young voices calling her name and turned as the Solo children descended on her.

“Mara, you’ve got to see the game Jacen got for Life Day, ” Jaina said tugging at her right arm as Jacen grabbed her left and Anakin grabbed a fistful of her flowing trousers.  
She turned back to Bel Iblis, but he beat her to the punch.

“I know,” he said, with a knowing smile, “You would love to stay and chat but duty calls.”

She shrugged without bothering to mask her relief and let the trio pull her away

Mara was offering analysis for the troop positioning Jacen and Jaina were working up for their hologame when Anakin glanced up and yelped

“Uncle Luke!”

As he tore past her, Mara felt a Force cloak lift. Luke’s presence filled the space behind her.

Of course he’d been invited.

She could feel herself tense up. She had nothing good to say to Skywalker.

He must know it. Had he cloaked his presence to keep her on edge?

She turned around as nonchalantly as she could manage. The game was abandoned as the twins followed their brother’s path in to their uncle’s arms.

No, of course not. He wanted to surprise them.

“Mara,” he greeted her with a smile that seemed only slightly strained, as though everything was much better now. 

“Skywalker,” she attempted to match his tone, “I didn’t know you were coming.”

He raised his eyebrows.

“Oh, Leia mentioned she’d invited you. She wasn’t sure if you would make it.”

“How long have you been shielding?” Mara couldn’t quite keep the accusation out of her voice. He’d known she’d be here, and he knew she wouldn’t have come if she sensed him here.

“A bit,” Luke replied lightly, allowing himself to be dragged over to the game. He sat down on the floor next to her and pointed at Jacen’s infantry cluster, swiftly changing the subject.

“I expect Mara was going to point out that putting them there leaves them exposed on three sides.”

“Been studying Stazi then?”

He turned to look at her, a slight smile playing over his lips.

“Yes, actually.”

“Hmm.” She fought harder than expected to keep her eyes off those lips, and her mind off the way they’d felt against her skin. That was not happening again.

“Well, if you’d taken the time to explore Tarkin’s early sorties, you’d know that the infantry cluster eats bomber detachments for breakfast.”

“Does it now?” Luke’s eyes sharpened and he leaned over the board seemingly unaffected by her lecture.

Mara cursed him quietly for his ease.

“Yes it does. It’s a terrible strategy.”

“Ah. Well then what would you suggest?”

His eyes were sparkling. He was entirely too playful for her tastes.  
She opened her mouth to tell him so. This was too important to mess around with. It was - she stopped herself. It was a game for kids. For fun. Yes, it could be useful for learning strategy, but its primary objective was fun.

Just because she didn’t know how to do that didn’t mean these three little lives should be denied that opportunity.

She looked down at the board.

“I would suggest shifting the bomber squad this way,” she said, keying in the positions. The purple pittins shifted in their standard zigzag pattern.

“Oh I see something,” Jaina blurted excitedly. She keyed in her move and Mara watched her green pittins bypass the yarnbombers and get a step closer to their nerfmilk target.

“Ooh. Ooh,” Jacen squealed with a touch of triumph. He did some keying of his own and the purple pittin yarnbombers pummeled the green pittins with Naboo yarn spools. The green pittins abandoned their target to play.

Jaina scowled and returned to her analysis. When she looked up, Mara caught her eye and then pointedly directed her gaze to the vulnerability in Jacen’s attack.

Jaina caught on and Mara sat back a little as Jacen’s triumph changed to a yelp of frustration.

At that moment, Luke reached over and touched her hand briefly. The touch was electric. She pulled back hoping he’d only noticed her hint to Jaina, not her whole reaction to the game.

“Are you fighting over strategy for a game for six year olds?” Leia sounded amused.

“It’s a military training exercise.” Luke replied. He sounded as insistent as she’d felt a minute ago. He’d caught all of it, apparently. She cringed inwardly.

“There are pittins.” Leia did not sound any less amused.

“Attack pittins!” Jaina insisted.

Leia’s smile was indulgent.

“Okay, well if you can tear yourselves away from the pittin offensive, it’s time to eat.”

As his niece and nephews tore out of the room ahead of him, Luke got to his feet and turned to offer Mara a hand, only to discover she had already stood up. She glanced down at his outstretched hand and met his gaze firmly. A pointed rejection. He gestured for her to exit the room first. She smiled tightly in acknowledgment and moved past him in silence.

Formal. Distant.

He suddenly remembered a moment just after Wayland. He’d received a comm from Karrde asking him to come by the Wild Karrde’s platform for a brief visit and - he’d expected - some key piece of information he’d have to pay well for.

As he’d passed through the gate, a figure had climbed out of the bowels of the ship. With a start, he’d realized it was Mara. She was flushed with excitement, tool belt slung low across her hips as she triumphantly wielded the part that needed replacement. There had been a grease mark smeared across her forehead that she appeared unaware of.

Her greeting had been jocular and she’d ribbed him about something he couldn’t remember, but he’d never forget the look on her face.

It was the first time he’d ever seen her content and unburdened. She’d glowed in the Force like a candle in the gloom.

She would have let him help her up, and probably made some mocking comment in the process. She would have smiled at him, those candles glowing in her eyes.

He wanted her to be like that again, for them to be like that again. He wanted her to tease him about his flying, and accuse him of attempting to fulfill Palpatine’s last command to her all on his own. He wanted… he wanted her calling out his name on a keening moan as wrapped his tongue around her most sensitive nub.

The flush of desire nearly stopped him in his tracks. He ran a quick concentration exercise as he walked towards the dining area in order to suppress it, but he knew he was only mildly successful. 

His heart leaped into his throat. 

The light from Leia’s Alderaanian style chandeliers lit up the gold strands in Mara’s hair as she turned to answer a question from Jacen, who was clearly delighted to be seated next to her.

He knew the feeling.

Leia grabbed his arm before he could move further into the room.

She looked a little embarrassed.

“Slight change in the seating arrangement,” she said with an undertone of panic in her voice as she pulled him out of sight around the corner.

“What’s up?”

Her eyes were round.

“I just found out Lando and Mara split up. I’ve been so caught up with Han and work that I missed the news.”

Luke blinked. Mara and Lando’s on and off relationship had been going on for years. It had been just another layer of guilt he could add to the mess he carried around when thinking of Mara. Surely they’d been off again when…

“Are you sure?”

“Oh yes,” she breathed, eyes wide, “Unmistakably from what I’ve heard. Mara doesn’t talk about it.”

Luke nodded, a little stunned. 

“It was a mistake inviting both of them this evening. A definite gaffe. I can’t make them sit together, so I moved Mara across from you with the kids. Can you keep her mind off things?”

He nearly blushed as he fought back ideas about how to make Mara forget Lando - or anyone else if he could manage it. In his struggle, he almost missed a strange echo in Leia’s sense, as though she hadn’t been caught quite as flat footed about this turn of events as she wanted him to believe.

“I’ll try.” He assured her. 

She hugged him with just a little too much gratitude and propelled him back into the room.

What was that about?

Unmistakable hostility flickered across Mara’s face as he pulled out the chair across from her, but she was all smiles when Anakin asked her if she knew what a Borcatu was, and Jacen almost sprayed them all with appetizer in his rush to tell them all he knew about the trash creatures.

It was a painful dinner, all told. Luke had to remind himself he could hardly expect it to be otherwise. He and Mara hadn’t had a real conversation since she’d visited him on Yavin. And that one hadn’t exactly gone well.

A lot had happened since then, and he realized that some part of him hoped she’d see that night as a long-abandoned Vermook rather than the Vermook in the room.

That part of him had clearly forgotten who he was talking about.

Mara seemed to reserve all of her hostility for him. She would chat politely if stiffly with the other guests, and she seemed genuinely relaxed when talking to the kids, but he couldn’t seem to get through to her. 

He was supposed to distract her from Lando chatting up the other end of the table, but she barely glanced his way. There seemed no heartache or injured soul to soothe there.

He knew any sort of attempt at broaching the past would be worse than rejected in a public setting like this, so he tried to talk about general topics instead. He updated her about the academy and the got the kids talking about the Force but all he got was dismissal and snide digs subtle enough that he knew he was the only one who understood he was being insulted.

It was enough to give him indigestion - or would have been if he couldn’t mitigate the effects with the Force.

He played along as best he could, wondering again if there was any chance at all of making things better with Mara. He’d been so hopeful when he’d arrived. Over the past few months, he’d been rebuilding. Things were better with Leia. He’d moved his Coruscant apartment to be closer to his family. He hadn’t realized what measure of peace could be found in accepting his present rather than striving for a past that was never really his to begin with, and imagining a future that seemed not to be the will of the Force. 

Everything had seemed possible when Leia told him Mara was coming. And then when Mara had poked at him about his Pittintroopers strategies he felt like maybe there was still a friendship there to recover.

Now he was pretty sure an apology would be worse than silence.

Eventually, the agonizing meal drew to a close, and Leia came to inform three squirming, yawning children that it was bedtime. 

He watched with some entwined sense of glee and jealousy as they demanded stories from Mara and she acquiesced easily. She had clearly come prepared for that.

He was beginning to realize that his absence had left a gap that she had, no doubt, unwittingly stepped in to at some point. No one had told him. They’d probably assumed he’d known. That he hadn’t, felt like a physical blow. Another reminder that his choice to leave at the worst possible time for the worst possible reasons had consequences he hadn’t thought of.

Time marched on. People changed. Nothing could go back to the way it had been.

And his heart ached.

He was pulled out of his brief reverie by Wedge and Iella saying something about having to get home soon.

He said goodnight to them and wondered if he should get going himself. He wasn’t feeling much like socializing anymore.

Then Han slipped up next to him and reminded him that he was going to take a look at his leg again after everyone left. Cilghal had sent him some suggested techniques to see if they could accelerate the muscle regeneration. 

That made him feel a bit better. He was looking forward to trying some new approaches. Perhaps just being a Jedi Master was enough for him, really.

The crowd dwindled until he realized that he and Mara were the only ones left.

Evidently, she noticed that immediately as she came out from the bedrooms announcing that the kids were waiting for their nightly hugs and kisses.

Luke kept his expression carefully neutral as he watched Leia convince her to stay and then insisted that Han join her in saying goodnight to their offspring.

They were both full of assurances they would be right back.

Something was definitely up.


	2. Chapter 2

Mara came out of the bedroom just in time to see Winter and Tycho close the door behind themselves. She realized the rest of the guests seemed to have disappeared too, except for Skywalker.

“I should get going,” she said as the door clicked shut.

“Can you stay a bit longer?” Leia asked, “I wanted to show you something. ”

“It’s getting late,” Mara protested.

“It’ll be quick. I’ll be right back. Han and I just need to say goodnight to the kids.”

With a wave of her hand, she ushered her husband down the hall to the bedrooms leaving Mara and Luke on either end of the sofa.

Luke calmly perused a datapad from the collection while she sat fuming. The last place she wanted to be was alone in a room with Luke right now.

He was just so calm, so full of dratted certainty and confidence. He'd spent all of dinner sounding like an academy recruitment video. The Force this, and the Force that. The kids had looked on with awe as he talked about worthy students completing their training. And now he sat there as though he assumed she wasn't smart enough to pick up on his real meaning. Worthy students, as opposed to her.

“Do you think they’ll be back soon?” She muttered half to herself.

“What does the Force tell you?” was Skywalker’s response, and it was a word too far.

“For the record, you can get off your bantha about everything.”

Luke glanced up at her quizzically from the other end of the sofa.

“You’ve been insufferable. Spouting off about the nature of the Force and your precious academy as though it’s all that matters in this galaxy. As if you care.”

“You abandoned your sister in the middle of the biggest crisis since Thrawn so you could flit around with some manipulative schutta. You’ve lost all moral high ground.

Despite his careful composure - his kriffing inscrutability - Luke was clearly taken aback by her words and the force behind them. 

“You’re right. I shouldn’t have gone, especially right then.”

A pause, then,

“Leia has forgiven me.”

“Yeah, she’s much faster about that stuff than I am.”

Luke turned to face her, pulling his legs up onto the sofa.

“I’m confused. I hadn’t thought my relationship with my sister was any of your business.”

“It is when she’s all alone with her children trying to explain to them why they’ll probably never see their father again and why their Uncle Luke apparently doesn’t give a damn!”

“That’s not fair!”

“Since when has the galaxy ever cared about what was fair?”

“You know that if I’d known how serious everything was, I’d have been here.”

Mara mirrored his pose.

“I don’t think I know that at all.”

Luke dropped his face into his hands. At first it seemed like he might feel some shame, but then Mara saw he was massaging his forehead. Exasperation then. This did not make her feel any less annoyed.

“You know how I don’t have many friends, Skywalker?” she said, sliding closer to him to make her point, “Leia is one of the few. You might notice that if you weren’t so self absorbed you would trip over your own left foot if the Force didn’t signal its presence to you.”

He was staring at her now.

“You were here.” There was no question in his tone.

“Yes. I even went looking for you.”

She’d found him too but if he hadn’t noticed, she wasn’t about to tell him. 

“What was your plan?”

“To knock some sense into you and get you back here.” 

“Kriff, Skywalker. You’re always poking your nose in where it doesn’t belong. Then the one time your nose could actually be useful to someone, you take off”

Confusion and frustration struggled for dominance on Luke’s face.

“I’m always doing what?” 

She shook her head, realizing suddenly how close to one another they were now seated.

“I’m not going to get into this.”

She pulled back a little, but Luke was now angry enough that he closed the distance she made.

“Why on Coruscant not? You’re clearly upset.”

“Yeah, well you’re not upset enough.” she clapped back, getting in his face again.

“I was.”

She narrowed her eyes.

Luke’s voice turned cold.

“I assure you I was. You’re not party to every interaction your best friend Leia and I have.”

“If you were upset enough, you wouldn’t have left in the first place.”

He rolled his eyes.

“Everyone makes mistakes, Mara.”

“Oh don’t throw my mistakes at me. I’m the last person in the galaxy you could surprise by kriffing things up beyond all recognition. I just don’t think you’ve atoned for your mistakes enough yet.”

“Well that’s nothing new.”

She blinked twice. What was he talking about?

“Did you really come after me? 

She nodded.

“I caught up with you but then I heard her talking about sex in hyperspace and giggling like a nerve burner, and figured you were too stupid to be of any use to us-” 

He kissed her then, cutting off her rant with strong lips and pulling her close.

She cursed herself silently for her inability to forget how he tasted, for enjoying so much the way he wrapped one arm around her back and tangled the other in her hair. 

She obliged as he tugged her head back so he could drag his lips down her neck - curse him for memorizing that pulse point, and then they were a tangle of arms and legs and breathy gasps on the sofa.

It was really just another expression of her contempt for him, she told herself as he slid a hand under the slit in her pant leg and brushed his fingers slowly up her thigh. Anger came in many forms. Biting his lip as he kissed her breathless was just one of them.

“Careful” he murmured against her mouth, “You’ll draw blood.”

“Maybe I want to,” she breathed back, nipping him again for emphasis.

“That would get messy,” he taunted.

“I don’t care,”

“Right,” the chuckle under his breath was infuriating, or would have been if he hadn’t punctuated it with a slow deliberate stroke between her legs. 

“Come to bed with me.” his voice was breathy, lips millimeters from hers.

Still asking despite the sheer inevitability of it all.

“Not here,” she managed, horrified at the thought of Han and Leia coming out to continue their social evening and finding the two of them tangled up together like a pair of drunken Dia Noga.

He pulled them to a seated position, one hand on her knee, and kissed her until she let a low moan escape. Then he pulled back just enough to look her in the eye.

“Then let’s go to my place.”

She’d barely nodded when he pulled them both to their feet and gave her a gentle nudge towards the foyer.

“I need to leave a note,” she whispered, pulling away and picking up the stylus for the datapad on the desk near the door.

“You do?”

He pressed into her from behind and bit her ear. She forgot what she was planning to write.

“Yes,” on a gasp.

“That’s more polite than you’ve ever been to me.”

“You become proficient in courtly customs and I might consider it.”

“I’m exploring other areas of proficiency.” his remark was punctuated by a searing caress. Mara’s hand slipped and she left a long line down the screen.

Stars, he had a good memory.

“Stop it,” she muttered, “I’m trying to write.”

She cleared the screen, and drafted a quick note about how she was sorry she had to go and that she’d had a lovely time and hoped the children slept through the night for them.

“Careful. A note like that and Leia will call the NRI to see who kidnapped you.”

“Shut up!”

“Gladly.” He covered her lips with his again. Her knees were wobbly by the time he pulled away.

It was too easy to kiss him. That was the problem.

It was too easy to lose herself in the feel of his lips, to drift into the rhythm of his breathing.

That didn’t make it right.

He slipped the stylus out of her hand.

“What are you doing?”

“Leaving them my own note.”

She snatched it back from him.

“Idiot. Then it will look like we left together.”

“I doubt Leia will mind. She’s probably hoping that’s how this evening will end anyway.”

The minute the words left his mouth, the look on his face made it clear he knew he’d said the wrong thing.

Mara pulled back and the temperature between them dropped about 40 degrees.

Something very much like fear clawed its way into her chest.

“What?” There was a threat inherent in her tone that most people knew to take seriously.

Luke winced, blew out a breath and and raked a hand through his hair.

“I didn’t mean it like that.”

She glared in disbelief. How else could he have meant it?

“She hasn’t said anything to me. I’m just guessing.”

He shrugged awkwardly.

“She brings you up in conversation a little too intentionally at times. Asks if I’ve seen you with a bit more than just casual interest.”

He looked a little frantic.

“She likes you, Mara.”

Mara backed away from him, rapidly raising her shields.

“Mara.” Luke was using his calm voice in an attempt to steady her. It had the opposite effect.

“This was always a terrible idea, Skywalker.”

She spun away from him and grabbed her boots. She almost slammed into the door as she slipped through it just as it opened. The turbolift couldn’t come fast enough. As she stood barefoot in the hall, she felt her lightsaber brush against her thigh, a reminder of the ridiculousness of her situation. 

She laced her boots in the lift, cursing herself the whole time. She’d thought Leia was a friend, but instead she was just looking for someone for her brother to spend time with. Of course. Stupid stupid stupid. She should have known. And she should have known better than to come to this party in the first place. Social gatherings were never what they seemed. 

It wasn’t until she was opening the door to the hired speeder that she felt her sleeve slide up her left arm and realized she didn’t have her blaster. It was, no doubt, precisely where she’d left it in the weapons cabinet out of reach of little hands.

She swore again. This is what came of allowing herself to relax enough to take the thing off. This sort of complacency could get her killed.

“Hold on a minute.” she told the driver, “start the meter, I’ll be...”

As she turned and steeled herself to go back to get her blaster, she saw Luke jogging over from the entrance to the building. He had her holster in his hand and a wary look on his face.

She was rooted in place as he slowed down and walked towards her.

He stood there for a moment, broadcasting regret.

Whatever, he should have kept his mouth shut. Really, he should have kept his mouth completely to himself.

She reached out to take her blaster back but as her hand brushed his, the Force surged between them. She saw them on the sofa, in the secret passage, in his room on Yavin. She could feel echoes of his touch in a dozen different places, and was filled with the heat of desire. She sucked in a breath and held still as he gently took her left arm in his right.

The hungry look was back in his eyes as he slowly slid her sleeve up to her elbow. Irresistable. She didn’t dare move. He slipped the holster across her forearm and strapped it in place with an unprecedented tenderness. Something inside her twisted. Would she ever understand this man?

He pulled her sleeve back down over the blaster and stepped back.

Your move, he seemed to say.

Behind her, the speeder roared away. The driver had clearly given up on the fare.

Luke raised his eyebrows. 

“I’m on 36.” He said into the crackling silence.

Since when did he live in the same building as Leia?

Oh Kriff it all, she thought, and she gestured for him to lead on.


	3. Chapter 3

Keeping his face impassive, Luke turned around and slowly walked back towards the building. 

It only took Mara a couple of long strides to catch up with him.

They walked side by side, like silent business associates back through the security check and across the lobby to the turbolift.

Mara studiously avoided looking in his direction as they climbed back up into the building. She hated all this pre-meditation. It forced her to admit that there was something she very much wanted about Luke. There was something about the way he touched her, the way he looked at her that she’d never felt with anyone else. It was distracting and deceptive. It could bring no good to her life.

She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. He looked serene again, as though he were in the lift with a stranger rather than someone he’d been seducing on a sofa minutes ago, as though he hadn’t just chased her down 55 floors and across the courtyard to take one last shot at it.

Infuriating. 

Still, she noted on an exhale, she was the one who had followed him back into the building. He’d given her every opportunity to walk away, and it was the hungry look in his eyes that had made her decision.

Briefly she remembered the eagerness with which he’d kissed her. The exhilarating sensation of Luke Skywalker pulling her into his frenzied need. Just because she wanted him, didn’t mean she had to be the only one strung tighter than a Queterra.

There was more than one way for this evening to go.

Mara felt a smile tug at her lips.

Luke turned to face her as she lifted her head to meet his eyes. She knew he’d sensed her emotions shift, but his look was quizzical.

She allowed a predatory grin and was pretty sure she saw his adam’s apple bob in a gulp as he took in her expression.

The lift doors opened and when she waved him ahead of her, she knew he recognized the playful edge to her gesture. 

He smiled playfully in return and a thrill ran through her making her toes tingle.

Kriffing Skywalker.

After he keyed open his door, she slipped in behind him and, in a single move, she hit the door close pad and slammed him into the wall.

She got one good look at the stunned expression on his face before she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled his mouth to hers.

He responded immediately: yielding and firm all at once.

Luke’s hands slid across her shoulders and down her back pulling her closer against him.

He was hard, she realized. That hadn’t taken long.

“All night,” he murmurred on a brief break for air.

“What?” 

That infuriating chuckle slipped out again as he slid his lips softly over hers.

“I’ve been thinking about you all night.”

He slid open the zipper on the side of her shirt and traced its path with his right hand.

Mara swatted the hand away.

No, it was not his turn yet.

She ignored the flash of delight he betrayed as she unbuttoned his shirt and tugged it down his arms. She left it tangled around his wrists and she pushed him against the wall.

Teeth met collarbone as she dragged her mouth down his neck, feeling surprised whoosh of air leaving his lungs, and the unsteady rhythm of his breathing against her ear. She nipped him lightly and heard his light gasp so she smiled against his skin and continued her explorations noting gasps and quiet moans along the way as she worked her way down to his waist. 

The salty tang of his skin on her tongue took her back to close quarters missions and sparring sessions that had left her heart racing as it was racing now. 

He smelled good and tasted better. She savoured the ripple of muscle under her ministrations, and his gasping murmurs of her name shot right to her core, overwhelming her senses. 

So much for the plan. She'd been trying to regain control of her passions and, instead, they were now both so turned on they could barely think.

Unable to get enough of him, she released his belt and heard it clatter to the floor as she undid his fly and slid his pants down to his ankles. He tried to move to undo his boots but she slid back up and slammed him against the wall again, lips finding lips, tongues tangling, breath mingling.

She slid her fingers up his neck and into his hair, tugging lightly at the short strands. She remembered his flash of warmth and pleasure the last time she’d done it. He smiled. His raised eyebrows were a challenge and she narrowed her gaze in return before sliding her hands back down his naked body and following them with her lips.

Kneeling in front of him, she met his gaze again as she took the tip of him between her lips and swirled her tongue around, lighting up his sensitive nerve endings. She watched his eyes flutter shut as he clenched his hands at his sides and let out a groan that seemed to rise up from his toes. Satisfied with his reaction, she leaned forward and took the rest of him into her mouth.

She heard her name as a strangled gasp and Luke thrust involuntarily. Mara reached out and braced her hands on his hips, holding him firmly in place as she bobbed back and forth at a pace she could control. Languorously, she slid her tongue along the soft velvet skin that was a contrast to his hard length. Gently, she sucked at him, encouraging his responses.

Luke was easy to encourage and he soon filled the space between them with helpless gasps and moans. His hands flailed at his side, trapped in his sleeves. He groaned out her name helplessly more than once and Mara felt herself grow wet at the sound of his slipping control. Triumph.

When she tasted a few salty drops on her tongue, she slowly slipped his length out of her mouth.

With a taunting grin she met his passion clouded gaze.

“So, do you have a bed in this place?” 

She stood up watching for him to struggle with being denied his release, but he just looked at her sardonically, as though he’d expected this from her.

He pulled his arms out of his sleeves behind his back and stepped out of his pants and boots towards her.

“What,” he started as he tugged her shirt over her head and made short work of her bra, “makes you think I can’t handle whatever you’ve got planned?”

One hand drifted down her back as he kissed his way slowly down her arm and slipped the holster off her wrist.

Then, holding her transfixed in his gaze, he unzipped her pants and let the silky fabric drop to the floor. He slipped a finger inside her underwear, sliding expertly across her clit.

Mara was unable to hide her gasp and Luke grinned at her more tender than triumphant as he shifted his touch and slid a finger inside her revealing her own arousal.

She felt her eyes roll back with pleasure as he stroked her both inside and out. She leaned her head against his damp shoulder and bit down on a handy patch of skin as a spasm rocketed through her.

He whispered her name as she shuddered and dug her nails into his shoulders to steady herself.

“Why are you doing this?” she gasped arching against him again. 

Chest heaving, he pulled back enough to look at her. His expression became incredulous as he searched her eyes for something.

Finally he shrugged a little.

“Because you do this” he said. Then he leaned down and took her nipple in his mouth, and she melted into him.

She barely noticed as her feet left the floor. Then she found his lips with hers again and clung to him as he carried her down the hall.

The room was bathed in the lights of a Coruscant night as Luke climbed onto his bed and laid Mara on the comforter. When he’d investigated this unit before purchasing, the agent had slyly alluded to the bedroom being attractive for this sort of activity, but Luke hadn’t thought much of it. He hadn’t bought the place to enhance his sex life. Quite the opposite actually. Buying a unit in his sister’s building had been a concrete move to demonstrate his commitment to being part of her family. It had been an act of love as well as despair. He’d certainly never expected to share this bed with anyone.

And yet, here was Mara, hair and skin glowing in the blue tinged light. Her heavy breathing matched only by his own.

He was overwhelmed. The desire to drink in the way she looked right now warred with an urgency he could barely contain. He reached his right hand to her cheek and slowly caressed her, his hand stroking gently down her neck, and across her breastbone. She trembled as he drifted past her belly button and lower.

Kriff. He could make Mara Jade tremble. Even he knew not to take that for granted.

With something that sounded a lot like a growl, she reached out and knocked his left arm out from under him causing him to topple down across her body.

He could have stopped his fall with the Force, but he knew that would make Mara cranky, so he let gravity win.

Her prompt move was to pull him close and wrap her legs around his hips.

Luke shuddered as he was pulled against her wet centre and then let out a strangled oath as Mara slid herself along his length with agonizing precision. She moaned as she lined him up with her opening, and he took the hint, pushing inside her in one smooth stroke. He cried out as he felt her softness surround him and her muscles tighten to match him.

He mumbled incoherently as he reveled in the familiarity of her skin and scent. He felt her stretch and bend around him as he molded his body to hers, as though they were two components fusing together as intended.

After a moment, he began to move.

Force, it was even better than he remembered.

Surely that meant there was something here. There was something more going on between them than frustration and loneliness. There was something in the way she clung to him, the way she gripped him that seemed to reveal some truth in these passionate embraces. Surely this wasn’t just his starved imagination making up connections where nothing existed. She fit with him in a way no one else ever had.

He watched her eyes dilate as he sensed the waves of pleasure begin to overwhelm her and he gloried in the small spasms that were growing more frequent, and demanding.

As he leaned down to bring his lips to hers again, he slid his right hand between them and began to stroke in time with his thrusts.

He tried to watch. He wanted to see that moment where she crested the peak of her pleasure, but he couldn’t concentrate. She felt so good, enveloping him with every tightening move, tracing lines of fire down his back with her fingers.

She cried out with her climax, her sense shattering over him in the Force. 

Her voice was demanding in his head: You better come too.

Luke obliged.


	4. Chapter 4

Mara woke in the dark. 

Luke was snoring, his arm flung across her with a sort of comfortable possession she did not want to think about.

Add falling asleep to the list of terrible decisions she had made this evening. She sighed as she stretched. Terrible, but incredibly satisfying.

Luke’s arm tightened around her and he curled into her.

She cursed inwardly.

She carefully slipped out from under his arm and grabbed the blanket she found on a chair by the bedroom door. Her first instinct was to retrace her steps directly to the hall to gather all her clothes and get out of there, but something was keeping her from doing that. Denial, probably, she admitted to herself; but she was also curious about this apartment. Instinct said to know your surroundings, and she did not know this place.

Either way, she wrapped the blanket around herself and wandered back down the hall.

There was a time she’d actually spent pleasant hours at Luke Skywalker’s place. They’d trained and sparred. They’d discussed the Force over cups of overly sweet hot chocolate and contemplated what it meant to have the responsibility to use it. He’d said thoughtful things. Healing things. Somehow, they’d managed to cobble together a friendship out of the stalker/prey relationship she’d fashioned for them years before they’d met.

But just like their friendship, Luke didn’t have that place anymore. She wasn’t sure when he’d shifted his Coruscant base over here. Maybe when he’d met Callista. They hadn’t talked much since then.

She wrapped the blanket a bit tighter.

She passed a second bedroom and the foyer strewn with both of their clothing then drifted past the food prep station into the great room. The space was furnished sparsely, and packing cartons were scattered about. Curious, she peeked at the labels. Delivery date was three standard weeks before. He’d barely moved in.

So what, was she here to help break in his new furniture? 

Cranky, she drifted past the boxes to a pile of holos stacked on a low table.

On the top was a formal portrait of Han and Leia with the kids taken maybe a year before. They looked every inch the proper family, although there was a telltale glint in more than one pair of eyes that hinted at the spirit that had brought them together and probably helped them survive.

There were a few shots taken at the academy: scenery, training moments. She was perusing the Tattooine landscape images when she glanced down and almost dropped the frame she held. Her own face leaped out at her. In the holo, she was sitting next to Leia and they were each holding one of the infant twins. She remembered that day. It had been shortly after she’d agreed to take on the Smugglers Alliance. Leia had insisted she come visit the babies again. She continued to insist as the years passed, Mara noted uncomfortably. 

She’d held Jaina because Jacen had fussed if Leia passed him to anyone else. Han sat on Leia’s other side and had clearly made some remark to Luke who was grinning as he looked over Mara’s shoulder from behind the sofa. Lando and Karrde were also in the shot. 

She had no memory of the holo being taken. None of them were looking at the lens.

Mara deliberately set down the twin sunset shot that had threatened to crash to the floor.

The room was starting to spin.

Forcing herself to breathe, she picked up the bottom of the blanket and fought her way past the cartons out onto the balcony.

The cold air slapped her in the face as she leaned against the wall.

Luke found her out there moments later. Of course, she’d woken him. He was wearing a blue sleep robe that was, mercifully, nothing like a jedi cloak.

She didn’t acknowledge his presence even though they both knew she could sense him.

“Forgot your grappling hook?” he finally ventured.

So he wasn’t always clueless.

“Left it in the Fire.”

He took her rejoinder as an invitation and ran his hand gently down her spine. She could feel his warmth through her blanket.

“Wanna borrow mine?”

She let out a small smile.

“Maybe.”

“I do have a front door, y’know.” He said, “You may not have noticed it on your way in. You seemed a little focussed.”

“I’m always focussed, Jedi.”

“I’m not complaining.”

“Good.”

He fell silent again. She could feel his emotions churning. He wanted to ask. He didn’t want to know.

It was better that way. She wouldn’t know what to tell him.

Instead she grabbed a handful of his robe and told him to kiss her.

Clearly, he sometimes did as he was told.

Without releasing her lips, Luke slowly drew Mara back through the door to his living room. There was a no fly zone and holo jammer around the building so none of the sludge press were likely to get anywhere near them, but it was best not to be outside. He knew beings had seen them go back up the lift together and the holo sludgers were getting more inventive. 

That Mara had been upset enough that she hadn’t even considered them worried Luke. His better judgement told him to stop this and see if she wanted to talk. But he’d never had much success at that before, and it seemed unlikely he would now. Besides, she was making it very clear that she did not want to talk.

Her apparent determination to keep him from stringing two thoughts together was also working against him. Any time he grasped a notion, her lips would shift against his and her fingers would stroke across skin she’d learned was sensitive. He simply had no defenses where she was concerned. It seemed unlikely that he ever would.

He didn’t know what to make of his feelings. Their relationship was far too broken for him to believe this was love, but, if anything good could be said to have come from his wrongheaded affair with Akanah, it was the sheer clarity that what he felt for Mara was a damn sight more than a passing attraction, or a port in a sandstorm. 

He wanted her. He was beginning to think he needed her and the reality she could tether him to with her quips and her glares. She made him feel human.

They stumbled to the sofa, blanket and robe falling swiftly to the floor. She turned around in his arms to kneel on the cushion facing the back of the piece of furniture. An invitation he couldn’t refuse. He slipped onto the nerfhide behind her and pressed his lips to the back of her neck before raining kisses down her spine. He revelled in every shiver and shudder. Her skin quickened under his touch, goosebumps demanding to be kissed and licked smooth.

As her reactions grew in volume, he slid inside her, groaning as he sank home inch by inch for the second time that night. On Yavin, noises had been strangled and cut short, as though she wouldn’t let herself show her pleasure. She was not so restrained tonight.

That was good. He wanted her to remember this. He wanted her to wake up in the middle of a hyperspace trip with his name on her lips. He wanted to slide into her mind when she was with someone else. He wanted - 

“Hutt-spawn,” she gasped, and a tiny thread of ice wove into her sense, but it was no match for the heat of passion they had built. He groaned in response and reached around to her breasts, stroking her nipples to hardness as he increased the pace of his thrusts. She cried out and he felt her convulse around him as she slid over the edge, drawing him with her into that spiral between blinding light and oblivion.

He wrapped his arms around her as they rode the wave of cries and shudders to the end. Then he gently tugged her down on to the sofa next to him and used the Force to pull her blanket over them as they lay breathing heavily.

He held her, soaking in her warmth, her breaths.

Force, he wanted her to stay. He wanted to hold her till morning and pour out everything he felt in, no doubt, useless words. He wanted to melt the barrier he sensed between them the same way she liquified in his arms when he kissed her neck. He wanted desperately to convince her of whatever it was she needed in order to just stay with him.

As that thread of ice worked in to her sense again, he knew she would leave.

Of course he wanted to cuddle. The scary thing was so did she. There was some illusion here of affection and care. It called to her like a star mirage: space madness.

She slid off the end of the sofa without a word. Breaking in the furniture, indeed.

Luke slipped his robe back on and followed her to the foyer where he silently watched her dress. He ran a hand through his tousled hair.

“Mara, please stay so we can talk.”

About what? That she would never manage to become a jedi? That she was definitely sure she didn’t want to be one if Luke Skywalker got to decide if she measured up? How his judgement on that and everything else was suspect?

“There’s nothing to talk about, Skywalker.”

“You’re still here. There must be something that’s working.”

She shook her head slowly, feeling more regret than she’d expected.

“The sex is good.”

She met his eyes with resolve.

“Nothing else is.”

And that was the whole crux of it wasn’t it? Whatever it was that made them two people who could drive one another to the heights of pleasure and satisfaction, it wasn’t what they needed. He was still Luke Skywalker, and he seemed to be using it to get out of things, to avoid being better.

She couldn’t make him.

She wasn’t sure whether he would chase her again, but she double checked to make sure she had both her blaster and lightsaber before she actually turned away from him.

She walked out the front door of the building without any sign of the jedi.

It seemed he had learned his lesson, or maybe he’d already gotten what he wanted. 

Waving away the various early morning speeders, she stalked purposefully along, grateful she hadn’t worn anything particularly dressy to dinner the night before.

She reached the spaceport without incident and let herself onto her ship, making a beeline for the cockpit. The solitude of her own space anchored her and restored a bit of equilibrium. She flopped down in the pilot’s chair.

Skywalker was a problem.

Was that fair? No possibly not, but then, as she’d told him earlier, the galaxy wasn’t all that concerned with fair. If it was, she realized, she’d be dead instead of independent with her own ship. No, the Force’s plans were far more nefarious. They seemed to involve some sort of hideous pseudo mercy. The bottom was definitely going to drop out of that someday.

And, Leia wanted to set her up with Luke. Kriff it all!

Perhaps it was time to take a break from the whole Skywalker-Solo crowd.

She surveyed her trade schedule. She had a gap coming up at the end of the next run. It seemed like a good time to go check out the corporate sector.


End file.
